Sarah's birthday & party

Sarah had a birthday! She says she turned 10, but we don't think that's possible, so we're going to switch to hexadecimal and say she turned "a" instead. (Two digits is just not acceptable! Ha ha!)

She had a nice day. It was her first day of summer and we went to a movie in the morning, which she always loves doing! She went shopping with U to buy some clothes with her birthday money, which she really enjoyed. For dinner we had pizza, which is definitely a special treat with a dairy allergy in the family (Matthew got his own special pizza).

Sarah with her gifts.

After opening the gifts. She was so excited about all of them.

She wanted ice cream for dessert as she doesn't really like cake.

"Hmmmmmm. What should my wish be?"

Sarah invited her friend Shelby to go to Peter Piper Pizza for a birthday party a couple days after her birthday. They enjoyed the pizza and soda and ice cream.

Daddy and Matthew enjoying the festivities.

The kids all enjoyed the tokens they received. Megan and Matthew spent a lot of theirs on the little rides although Megan managed to grab a ball with the big claw.

Megan and Matthew were so cute on the ice cream truck--they'd take your order and get you your ice cream. Yum!

Sarah and Shelby liked getting tickets which they could then trade in for prizes. They kind of went a little crazy but had a great time doing it.

What Sarah has to say about her birthday: It was fun. It was awesome. It was cool. I loved all of my presents. It was the best!

Stats from Sarah's 10 years check:
67 lb
55 inches

She's hitting her pre pubescent growth spurt a bit early!

End of Preschool letter wall

Here's some pictures of our preschool letter wall from this year. The brown paper is our map that we'd add our little treasure piece to each week. We also added a big letter to the wall each week. Actually, we'd add two--one for Megan and one for Matthew.

The map with most of the letters. Megan's are mostly on the bottom and right side and Matthew's are to the left.

A few more letters.

Don't want Matthew's "s" and "m" to be left out.

Close up of treasure map.

Definitely a fun year of preschool!

A good day at the zoo

A few weekends ago, we had a great visit at the zoo with lots of good animal viewing. 

The tiger was prowling about and growling. We were able to see her eat her breakfast. 

The lions were eagerly awaiting their breakfast. It was fun to see the male lion pacing back and forth. He's impressive looking!

Who you looking at?

The tortoise was racing.

The young orangutans were swinging and playing.

The mommy orangutan was showing off her new baby. 

(First time I'd seen the baby since the last few times we visited the baby was wrapped up in a blanket far from viewing.)

The turtles were swimming!

The squirrel monkeys were really active--so much fun to watch them eat and play!

Definitely a good day at the zoo! (And yes, the whole family was there; we just didn't take any pictures of the family.)

A few other happenings

Megan enjoys making "fruit cake." She's done it a few times now. Basically, it consists of putting lots of fruit and veggies in a bowl that she can then eat. Yum!

Eating latkes.

Megan checked out a couple books at the library that had latkes in them. One book included a recipe so we decided to give them a try. Everyone enjoyed them.

Playing with dominoes. The goal is to stack them as high as possible, right?

Love this face!

Proud Megan

Megan has spent the last few months saving her money for a scooter. Last week, she finally had enough. She is super excited to have her very own scooter and is enjoying riding it everywhere!

Introducing Erma Bombeck

Sarah's class did projects on famous Arizonans. Sarah learned about Erma Bombeck, who was a newspaper writer who wrote about humor in everyday life. She enjoyed the project and especially liked the wax museum at the end, where she got to dress up like Erma and all the parents came to hear the class give little speeches. Sarah designed and decorated the backdrop as well (it's Erma's writing room, complete with a typewriter).

Here's the whole class. Where is Sarah???

Feed My Starving Children

Last week, Sarah and I went to Feed My Starving Children, where we packed meals to send to children in the Philippines. (They send food everywhere--that's just where our boxes were headed.) Our group packed enough food during our session to feed 20 children for one year. Pretty cool! Sarah says that it was awesome and that she had a lot of fun. She especially liked to food samples they gave us at the end.

Matisse Collages

In our continuing study of famous artists, we read a little about Henri Matisse. He was sometimes called the "Wild Beast of Color" because he used so many bright colors in his work. We used construction paper and cut shapes out to make collages. You can guess whose is whose. (Hint: Sarah had something else going on so she didn't make one.)

More fun at the park

What's better than going to the park? Going to the park twice in the same day, of course. After quiet time yesterday, they enjoyed more playing at the park. The girls again enjoyed splashing around in the water. (Sarah actually showered three times yesterday--once before breakfast, and once after each park trip.) Matthew enjoyed building in the sand.

Matthew's castle.

All three kids with Matthew's jail (it's the area dug out under the slide).

Fun at the Park!

Yesterday, when our weekly home cleaning was done, we went to the park. The kids were so motivated to get the cleaning done so we could go. It was great!

It had rained on Friday night. A lot! Not nearly as much as September, but enough that the greenbelt flooded a little. The girls thought that was great fun! And we got some really cool pictures.

Love those girls and the reflection.

The girls running around in a circle to create big ripples. You can almost see the whole circle here.

Sarah pulling Megan in the wagon. Awesome reflection, too.

Pull Sarah, pull!

Matthew was content to ride the trike back and forth on the sidewalk. He had no intention of going anywhere near the water.

My buddy and Me.

Megan is so strong--she pulled Sarah home in the wagon.

Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day, I got a super yummy HUGE breakfast. I'm so spoiled!